AFL's Dorothy Hisgrove To Unveil New Gender Vision For League

May 5, 2014

The Australian Football League's lone woman exec "has vowed to reshape the culture at head office by installing a 'transparent recruitment process' which would place more women in positions of influence," according to Caroline Wilson of THE AGE. AFL GM-Customer, Community and People Dorothy Hisgrove, who joined the AFL’s exec team last year from a senior management role at Australia Post, admitted that "some women inside the competition’s hierarchy had shied away in the past at putting their hands up for senior roles." Hisgrove said that she "had identified a tendency within football’s management to recruit staff who were a 'mirror image' of those already working in the system." Hisgrove: ‘‘Women have enormous economic clout in the household and across society and we are completely under-utilizing them. I want to deliver cultural change. I want to see more women participating in our game on and off the field. I’m not just talking about women serving on the commission or on the executive, I’m talking about creating a pipeline of leaders through the business.’’ Hisgrove has "received the strong backing" of the game’s new CEO, Gillon McLachlan, in her determination to move beyond the oft-criticized tokenism of Women’s Round. Hisgrove "will unveil her new gender vision for football at Monday’s AFL Women’s Industry Lunch" (THE AGE, 5/4).